Aston Martin limits imports to US because of Trump tariffs

The British sportscar maker Aston Martin is limiting imports to the US in the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs, while its counterparts Stellantis and Mercedes withdrew their financial guidance for the year, blaming the uncertainty around changing US policy on import levies.

Aston Martin, known for producing the cars driven by James Bond in the spy films, said it was “currently limiting imports to the US while leveraging the stock held by our US dealers”.

The US is the key market for the lossmaking carmaker, which generated about a third of its £1.6bn revenue for 2024 in the country. It said on Wednesday it was “carefully monitoring the evolving US tariff situation” and would “respond to changes in the operating environment as they materialise”.

Aston Martin, Mercedes and the Fiat owner, Stellantis, are among the automakers affected by Trump’s sweeping levies, which threaten to upend car markets and disrupt global supply chains.

The US administration introduced a 25% tariff on all car imports on 3 April, as part of its shake-up of global trade, and in a move designed to bring auto production back to the US.

However, Trump announced on Tuesday plans to water down the sweeping tariffs, by scaling back some of the duties on foreign cars and parts to give a reprieve to US carmakers, after the domestic industry warned his strategy would increase costs for American manufacturers by tens of billions of dollars.

Carmakers subject to a 25% tariff on imports will not be subject to other levies Trump has imposed, such as those on steel and aluminium, while US carmakers will be allowed to apply temporarily for tariff relief on a proportion of the costs imposed for imported parts.

Meanwhile Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Fiat, Vauxhall and Peugeot cars, said on Wednesday it was suspending its 2025 financial guidance for a moderate recovery in its business, as a result of uncertainties around US tariff policies.

It came as the group, which suffered a drop in profit in 2024, reported a 9% fall in car shipments in the first quarter to 1.22m units, compared with a year earlier, as well as a slide in net sales.

The German carmaker Mercedes-Benz Group also withdrew its financial outlook for the current year on Wednesday, as a result of uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs.

The company – which produces some vehicles in the US but also ships European-made cars to North America – said there was “considerable uncertainty for the world economy” as a result of the US’s tariff policy and countermeasures from other governments, making it difficult for the company to issue forward-looking statements.

Volatility around tariffs is “too high to reliably assess” business development this year, Mercedes said, adding that its operating profit, cashflow and margins could all be affected if US tariffs remained in place.